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Thursday, March 29, 2012

tissue rosette wreath

I won't deny my love of wedding blogs. I simply can't. My sister got married last summer, and I avidly read them while helping her plan. I kind of didn't stop afterwards. Can you blame a girl? It doesn't bother me any. I love seeing ideas and events and creativity and projects.

In my recent wedding blog cruising, I stumbled upon a tissue rosette ball that a blogger wanted to try to recreate. I also loved how hers turned out, and knew I needed to give it a go.

Now these are pomanders, which I could've done, but I had a square shaped wreath on hand from a previous failed project, so I utilized that. (See, it pays to keep things even if you think they are ruined!)

This is how I did it:

Tissue Rosette Wreath

What You Need:
styrofoam ball/wreath, or whatever it is you want to cover with the tissue rosettes
crepe paper, in the color of your choosing
a hot glue gun
scissors
ribbon, if you plan on hanging whatever it is you create

Directions:

The real trick is learning how to make the tissue rosettes. Once you know how to do that, you can get in your groove of making them, and then cover whatever it is you want to cover.

To make the tissue rosettes took some practice. A lot of it actually. I couldn't wrap my head around the concept, and my flowers ended up looking very small at first. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, and then things started to shape up.

Start off with your crepe paper in your color of choice. I bought this jumbo roll from Hobby Lobby for around $1.25, but I heard you can get a 2 pack from the Dollar Store as well. Measure strips of the crepe paper into 24 inch lengths and cut them. I recommend doing many of these so you don't have to continuously stop to do more.

Next up, take one of the strips and crumple it up good. This step could be skipped, but it gives it some nice texture. Smooth the crumpled strip out and fold in approximately a third down the entire length of the strip.

Now gets the rolling and actual creation of the rosette, which is something I had to get used to. You grab one end of the strip of paper and start rolling. The photo above helps show how to hold the paper---have the folded down edge be at the top of the flower and facing inside as you roll it.

The beginning few rolls are small and help get the rosette started.

It's the next part that took me the longest to get used too. All other tutorials I read tell you that as you continue to roll the flower (like above) to twist the strip of crepe paper as you roll it. And essentially, this is what you do. But every time I tried, I found the flowers ended up very small. I realized I was wrapping it too tight.

So this is what worked best for me, but experimenting is how you figure out what will work for you. After you've started to roll a significant amount, I would twist the entire rest of the strip first, then I would take the twisted strip and wrap it around the center, creating a rosette. The wrapping is very loose, and this is what makes the rosette large.

As soon as I would get towards the end of the strip of paper, I would flip the rose over and twist the end of the strip with the area of crepe paper you hold throughout. This connects the ends and "finishes" off the rose. As soon as I finished one, I would use my plugged in glue gun and adhere it on my square wreath.

And repeat. A lot. Depending on what you're covering, you may need two rolls. The tutorials that did the balls used two. I ended up using one, with a bit left over and a lot of goof-ups.

Slowly making progress and the flowers still look good!

Here is my finished result:

I had this wreath previously. I had hot glued greenery from fake flowers onto the inside, so I just covered the front with flowers. I didn't know what to do about the sides, as I thought flowers would be excessive. So some spanish moss from Meijer it was. It looks quite cute and spring-like. Colored crepe paper would be a blast and look beautiful, as evident in other tutorials. I'm considering adding something to hang from the center of the wreath, but I haven't decided.

Can't wait to hang this up, as it was a labor of love. Now to figure out what to hang or display in the center...

welcome

As a newly relocated Chicago gal, I am loving every second of exploration and discovery. With a great city and a job I adore, I spend my time crafting new recipes, creating far too many do-it-yourself projects, and taking the city by storm. Welcome to my corner of the blogging world.